IT’S BEEN OVER a decade since the government introduced the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) scheme. Since then, the housing market has changed drastically, going from bad to worse. HAP has been controversial since it first arrived, but over time, it has failed to adapt to the country’s spiralling housing emergency.

Differing from other rent subsidy schemes, HAP set out to ensure people could cling to some semblance of housing security while also working full-time. In this regard, the scheme is an indirect acknowledgement of the market’s failure to make housing accessible even to those who work full-time.

HAP’s issues have been evidenced again and again by studies and reports from housing charities and NGOs. One recent and damning example is the Simon Community’s December 2025 report, which showed that no properties were available to rent within standard HAP limits in the 16 areas they examined.

Reluctance from landlords

Approval for the scheme is one obstacle, but finding somewhere to live once you are proven eligible has become an insurmountable challenge.

“Why on earth would a landlord willingly bother to avail of it?” the late journalist Christine O’Donnell asked, regarding HAP, in a 2017 article for TheJournal.ie.

She reflected on how the scheme seems enticing on paper, but noted that, by nature, it leaves renters open to prejudice and classist discrimination. O’Donnell described the term HAP as a “bomb” that would obliterate her prospects of being considered as a tenant; the situation has only........

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